Perception

I found this to be an interesting case of how two people with opposing political views perceived the same story. Anybody who reads this cyber-rag will know which side I agree with, of course.

Today, Gallup released a study that claims "About 93 percent of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are moderates and only seven percent are politically radical, according to the poll, based on more than 50,000 interviews."

Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch posted:

Relax! There are only 91 million jihadists!

And that, to some minds at least, proves that this problem has nothing to do with Islam. The idea that the jihad ideology could have been deemphasized for a long period and then reasserted, as in pamphlets such as "Jihad: The Forgotten Obligation," creating an energetic minority, a jihadist vanguard within the Islamic world, does not enter this scenario. We are supposed to feel great that only 91 million share radical views -- or at least only 91 million were dumb enough to tell a Gallup rep that they held such views.

Jon Ponder at the Pensito Review had this to say:

Poll: 93% of Muslims Worldwide Condemn 9/11 Attacks - 0% Approve of Attacks on Religious Grounds

It is advantageous to George Bush and the fear-mongers who run our government to ascribe the terror attacks to the Muslim religion. The reality is, Osama bin Laden and his ilk are conservative political extremists who, like rightwing extremists in the United States, justify their hate-filled political agenda with narrow, self-serving interpretations of mainstream religion beliefs.

Read the comments on both sites. Guess which contains the irrational, unhinged rants. If you're really up for an adventure, the hard-left people at Reddit have an active "discussion" going.

While 50,000 polled may seem like a lot of people, that's only 0.0000038 % of all Muslims. This is why I never trust polls.

-T